Thursday, March 27, 2008

Japan Toys are smart

Kali let me in on A secret the cartoonist girls seem to know. Japan makes the most interesting and fun toys. Here's a kind she just showed me.They make little tiny characters with stumpy armS and legs (when they have legs)

and the key is they make tons of them, so they are collectible. Part of the fun is that they look like little funny crips.Disney has hopped on the bandwagon too. I think it's a good idea. They are even allowing the toys to be off model.They give them a nice Jap feel.Kali suggested :"I think it would be keen if you made Spumco toys in the stubby small style" and I agreed.

So I'm on it.Would you buy these if you saw them in a gum ball machine?

How about a line of stubby cartoonists?These were also featured in a monumental post on Kali's blog.

I think one of the reasons Chibi works is that everything becomes so rounded, so I'm not sure Jimmy is the best candidate with his funny shaped head. I love the others, though. Uncle Eddie should be on all my pencils.

Wow! Gumball Spumco characters. And Cartoonists,too! I'd collect a John K, Unca' Eddie, Kate'n'Kali, and Marlo, too. Then there's Mike F. and Eric Bauza. Marlo would probably do a great job doing the designs for the cartoonists.

Hurm.... isn't that Chip topper just part of the Disney Cuties line? I recall seeing Cuties stuff getting discounted right out of the Disney Store some months back, a made-for-merch line that Disney seemed to dump just as you noticed it existed.

hopefully by this time tomorrow I'll have made the the rest of your sketches into toppers.I'd like to cast them if that's cool with you and make them out of eraser material, not for any profit or selling whatsoever just for my own enjoyment. And if you'd like, i'd like to send 'em your way.

I love the stubbie little spumco Idea. especially if they were pencil toppers. I know 25 year old kids like myself would love em'. better than those little homies toys, and I'm sure that guy made millions.

Speaking of the Japanese, John, have you ever read/seen any drawings from the original Dragonball series (before Z when they added "tude" and the characters took themselves too seriously)? For a manga there are some really appealing drawings. Theres lots of "chibi". Tiny little puff-ball children just walloping the shit out of men 20 times larger than them. It's very funny and exaggerated. All the plants and innanimate objects in the backrounds are caricatured as well. To me it's pure cartoony goodness. Of course, there's still the problem with the weird faces that defy the laws of physics, but other than that, I can't take my eyes off the stuff.

Hey JohnAre you making any cartoons currently? Enjoy your blog a lot. Not so into the toy stuff myself...more interested in the animation discussions. Are you interested in doing an animated feature or series? And are there any already-existing characters, other than your own, with whom you'd like to work?BB

john k...im sorry my comments of late are so irrelevant to posts, but i've got some animation confusion. if youre working with a 12x animation (12 frames per beat) and you are in 24 fps (is this the industry standard? why? is it anymore now that people are using computer programs? is it 24 for ease of aligning with music?) this means 2 beats per second. in animation that means the same thing as it does in music right? so 2 beats per second = a 120 tempo (a very standard music tempo). if you have a 10x animation (10 frames in a beat), 2.4 beats per second in 24 fps (assuming youd keep it 24?)... so 2.4 beats in a second x 60 = 144...this is a reasonable tempo. is this the right way of thinking of it? what does the animator do if the song fluctuates in tempo, or is not a mechicanical consitent 144 all the way through as you might find in electronic music? these old swing bands must have been playing incredibly precise time for the old animators to go along with their music so exactly...you think? just tryin to understand the process as i get more and more into the marriage of music+art. your blog is my mentor. i wish i could call your blog and ask it questions.

I think you slightly missed the point of the successful design attributes those "Jap" pencils feature that your versions lack. Your models are slightly too large for easy portability.

The Japanese designers created a pencil-topper that is slightly larger in circumference than the pencil itself. Your designs make the pencil into a bludgeoning weapon.

From a marketing standpoint, you are shooting yourself in the foot. If I buy your pencil cap, I would only be able to fit a single design into a single pencil case. But if you stick to the design size of the Japanese version, you could have kids running around with 10-30 of your pencil caps in tow.

I know those are first drafts... so you have plenty of time to scale the designs down for mass-production.

The character designs somewhat violate the super-deforma aesthetic that drive interest from Japanese children and American teenagers... I'll be honest, I am not well-versed enough in construction, structure, and texture to point out the problem. But I think the characters are bulbous and obese.

I know you are not trying to directly imitate the Japanese stationery design aesthetic, but there is something unattractive about the figures I cannot adequately express.